John and the Hole (2021)

In the unsettling psychological thriller John and the Hole, a desperate game of survival unfolds after 13-year-old John traps his family in a hole in the ground. Its premiere at Sundance saw it listed among the Most Anticipated Films of 2021 by GQ, Vogue, IndieWire, Vox, and others, and it won awards across the festival circuit.

The film stars Screen Actors Guild Award-nominated rising child star Charlie Shotwell (The Nest, Eli, Captain Fantastic, The Glass Castle), along with seven-time Emmy nominee Michael C Hall (Dexter, Dexter: New Blood), BAFTA winner Jennifer Ehle (The Comey Rule, A Quiet Passion), and Fright Meter nominee Taissa Farmiga (The Gilded Age, American Horror Story).

“Shotwell is scarily plausible in the role, presenting us not simply with a sociopath but, below that, with a bored boy who searches for kicks and rehearses an adulthood that he both craves and dreads,” says The New Yorker, while RogerEbert.com said in their 3.5/4 review, “It’s exciting, quietly volatile stuff that digs refreshingly deep into the fears of the coming-of-age genre.”

Written by Oscar winner Nicolás Giacobone (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)), John and the Hole is the feature directorial debut from Spanish visual artist Pascual Sisto, who was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and named among the 10 Directors to Watch for 2021 by Variety.